On The Bridge

Lithograph

28 cm x 35 cm

This lithograph records my visit to a historic iron railroad bridge with our son Michael, last of our seven children. The bridge consists of wooden planks laid over the iron trusses and spans a branch of the Patuxent River which runs as a stream behind our home.

All of our children gave me such great joy that I at times desired to freeze frame, to reserve moments in a place I could revisit. There is no return, however. What remains lives in memories, records, artifacts and in the wafting ambiance igniting wonder that we momentarily occupy the same space as those who created the foundations upon which we build.

This lithograph places the viewer in the continuity of historical development. Kneeling on the Bollman bridge, Michael pushes between the rails overlooking dangerous waters, while full-leafed trees sway in the warm summer wind and strangers approach. The future is indistinct, represented by the ambiguous figures whose passing intersects our own. Both peril—portrayed by the unseen swirling waters—and fulfillment—characterized by the abundant swaying trees which hide the Mill—find their expression in the intractable march of time.